Discipline and freedom are almost always regarded as antonyms. To discipline means to control ; to be free means to be free from any controls. It shows that both concepts are indeed opposite to each other. However, under a Montessori environment, they are considered complementary as they are viewed the two sides of the same coin. One might ask how these two concepts, freedom and discipline, very opposites at first sight, could be equal? To answer this paradox, we have first to see how Dr. Maria Montessori defines and understands these two seemingly contradictory words in her so special approach to education.
Anti Montessori’s definition of discipline
When I entered the school system “long time ago”, discipline played a major role. There was no freedom: the class was structured and we, children , sat at a specific desk one behind the other in a row. The teachers were very strict and it was forbidden to talk to one another. If you were caught talking or acting silly, the teacher would hit your hand with a ruler or make you stand in a corner facing the wall. I vividly remember these experiences. The teacher was there to tell us what work to do and we did it. We were not given a choice. When my three children entered elementary school after some time spent at Montessori i, it had change from harsh discipline to more freedom and socializing. There wasn’t still not a choice of activities.
Montessori’s definition of discipline
The Montessori meaning of discipline is not the kind of external discipline, that is something the teacher does to control or command the child, for "listening doesn't make a man". Rather it is the child who internalizes the rules and feels that he/she is responsible for his/her acts. This is an "active discipline" attained when the child is "the master of himself and when he can, as a consequence, control himself when he must follow a rule of life”. Thus for Montessori, her definition of discipline is interchangeable for words like self-discipline, self-control, self-motivation, responsibility to the environment , self-initiated tasks and way to independence. All children have an inner discipline, which is developed by the freedom of the Montessori environment. The role of a Montessori director/directress is therefore in helping the children to develop this kind of discipline through activities that are according to their inner needs because "the fist glimmerings of discipline have their origin in work.
Montessori’s definition of freedom (liberty)
Very often people think of freedom as “doing what we like” which is not the case with authentic Montessori education. One day, a lady visited Dr. Montessori's school. She thought that in the school the children did what they liked as the school was known for its freedom. A little boy gracefully told her that "it is not that we do as we like, but we like what we do.” 4 This is a vivid example of what real freedom is.
Children learn best in an atmosphere that combines freedom with self -discipline. True freedom cannot exist without self-discipline and the development of skills for independent thought and action. Freedom in the Montessori classroom means free to do what is right. The child and the teacher work together in a prepared environment to build a community. The child learns to respect the rules. Choice is given for the child to choose his own activity. The out come of this freedom is self-discipline, concentration individuality and social interaction.
“The child does not perform a task because it gives him/her pleasure but he/she finds pleasure in the task he/she decides to do”. The task has become such a joy to the child that he/she almost forgets about him/herself even material rewards have no influence on him/her. EM Standing in Montessori, her Life, her Work, elaborates on this idea by saying that it is not just thinking and/or doing what we like that makes us free but thinking and/or doing what is true. As Goethe wrote: "The invaluable happiness of liberty consisted not in doing what one pleases and what circumstances invite you to, but in being able, without hindrance or restraint, to do in the direct way what was right and proper”.
Three weeks ago, during a teaching practice visit, I observed a 4-year-old girl choose a binomial cube. She carefully brought it to her table. She tried several times to put it back together without any frustration. She was absorbed in self-discipline and gave a big smile when she completed her task. The Montessori environment allows freedom and discipline to work in harmony. The child who has this kind of freedom no longer relies on external incentives but can choose freely how to behave and what to do or what not to do. Not only does the child can choose freely but also he/she obeys the internal guide to "follow the long and narrow path toward perfection". This child has now become "master of his own home".
Discipline and Freedom as the Two Sides of the Same Coin
After we have looked at the Montessori definitions of discipline and freedom, it is not hard to realize hat they underlie the same concept and that they are equal. There is another way to look at this irony: "To be free means to be in control of self (self-discipline).” The child no longer wastes his/her energy on aimless activities and become agitated by them. Rather, he/she freely chooses the work, and enjoys it so much that he/she becomes so concentrated in it that any other stimuli around passed unnoticed. This kind of concentration arises actually from the “freedom of choice” .The child chooses a task among the many others prepared by the director/directress and has become absorbed in it so to perfect it. It is when the child is so absorbed in the task that real discipline emerges. As Dr. Montessori puts it herself: "The first dawning of real discipline comes through work".
In addition, E.M. Standing also suggests "true liberty of choice is bound up with the power to think and reason -every act of choice being necessarily preceded by an act of the intellect, i.e., a judgment ".Imagine a child who thinks thoroughly and uses his/her judgment before every act, we would describe him/her as a disciplined child. E.M. Standing tells us that this child not only is a disciplined child, but he/she also enjoys true liberty of choice! Indeed, freedom and discipline are the same!
It is almost not possible not to talk about the will and obedience in inquiring on the relationships between freedom and discipline. First of aft, we have to realize that freedom is crucial in the attainment of true obedience. It is a “willed obedience” that is freely chosen by the child but not forced”.Will and obedience go hand in hand together: a child's ability to obey depends on the development of his will power.Therefore, we have to strengthen a child's will in order for him/her to obey or to be in control of him/her-self , i.e., selfdisciplined.
Discipline and Freedom in a Montessori Environment
This was how Dr. Montessori described her classroom: "Despite their easy freedom of manner, the children on the whole gave the impression of being extraordinary disciplined". This depicts what a Montessori classroom should be like. For the doctoressa, the children were so disciplined and responsive to the teacher's instructions that the teacher almost felt responsible for every word she said. Unusual enough, this kind of discipline or responsiveness does not keep the children from behaving and acting on their own impulses. It is also not obtained by any external means. So what are these means?
The prepared environment is one of the answers. It is important to note that the Montessori approach has been “defined as one which is based on Freedom in a Prepared environment”.There are some limitations in a prepared environment: only the good activities are encouraged because they lead to: “order, harmony, selfdevelopment and therefore to discipline…”
A prepared environment is one that contains motives for activities and gives children independence. The teachers are only “passive observers” and providers of the right materials,” there should be no direct influence exerted to the child”. The Montessori prepared environment provides activities and materials, which motivate the child’s interest and inner concentration which results in natural self-discipline. The fact that the child makes their own choice in their activities allows for independent learning and satisfaction.
And only those materials that bring about concentrated self-activities and natural development can find their way in the Montessori classroom. However, the materials will be taken away if the children do not choose them even though they are well prepared. This shows how the children have their part in choosing the materials.
I observed a boy (3 year old, I think) choose the pink tower. He randomly placed down the blocks and as oblivious to the other children working at their own activity near him. He patiently put the tower back together and went on to another activity. I saw “freedom’’ and “discipline working together in this child.
Another thing to be considered in a prepared environment is the collective interest because “the liberty of the child should have as its limit the collective interest; as its form what we usually consider good breeding.”
Little Jimmy has all the freedom in the classroom to choose whatever activities he likes but when his behaviours might offend or hurt others, he will surely be intervened and stopped. Dr. Montessori makes it so clear that “every act of true choice is preceded by an act of judgment”. The children “can work only in the materials we give them” and they are allowed to choose the materials that are already known how to use; so that the children can follow their natural needs and grow both mentally and psychically.
Source: http://e-montessori.com/montessori-education
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